How to Design a Rose Garden That Feels Romantic, Not Formal

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How to Design a Rose Garden That Feels Romantic, Not Formal

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How to Design a Rose Garden That Feels Romantic, Not Formal

Skip the rigid beds. Mix shrub roses with perennials, give climbers a wall, and let scent do half the work.

The old rose garden — ranks of hybrid teas in bare earth — has a certain museum charm. For a garden you live in, something looser works better. Choose shrub and climbing roses with good foliage, plant them as if they were any other shrub, and let companions weave through.

A mass of one excellent rose is more romantic than a collection of mediocre ones.

Nepeta and hardy geranium to spill at the feet.
Foxgloves and alliums for vertical punctuation.
Lavender where the soil is sharp and the light is high.
Clematis to extend the season on the same support.

Place at least one rose where you will brush it — beside a gate, over a bench, along a path to the kitchen. Scent is the most efficient form of romance a garden has.

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